It appears that one of Mayor Regalado's companions on his trip to Taiwan was Mirta “Mikki” Canton, a member of the Board of Trustees at Miami-Dade College. She's got business ties with Asia and the following two businesses registered under her name:
- ASIAAMERICANA INTERNATIONAL, LLC
- CHINAAMERICANA INTERNATIONAL LLC
And the following resolution which was passed a few months ago by the Miami city commission was posted by an anonymous commenter on a certain blog:
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH ATTACHMENT(S), BY A FOUR-FIFTHS (4/5THS) AFFIRMATIVE VOTE, AFTER A PUBLIC HEARING, PURSUANT TO SECTION 2-614 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED ("CITY CODE"), WAIVING THE CONFLICT OF INTEREST PROVISIONS, TO ENABLE MIRTA "MIKKI" PADRON CANTON TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE CITY OF MIAMI, FOR THE PURPOSE OF SERVING AS SENIOR PUBLIC POLICY ADVISOR TO THE MAYOR.
Click here to view the agenda of that meeting
Click here to view the above resolution in its entirety
So was this really a trip to benefit Miami or were there ulterior motives? Still no answer on who funded the trip. Did taxpayers pay for the trip for everyone? Was this trip paid for by one of Mirta's companies? Did the Taiwanese fund the trip? If either of these last two, would it count as a gift and thus require that the appropriate paperwork be filed?
So many questions!
